(urth) Mystery of Ascia

[Gerry Quinn]

From: "Lee Berman" <severiansola at hotmail.com>
>
> Gerry, I wasn't going to continue this thread but you seem so intensely 
> interested
> in the subject, which is my field of speciality, I'm willing to give it 
> one last try
> if the List does not have major objections. This is contingent on the idea 
> that you
> really are interested in learning something about this field from me. It 
> may be that
> you are not interested and consider me an unsuitable instructor because of 
> our differences
> in interpreteting Gene Wolfe. It may be that you want to win this 
> argument, feeling the
> enjoyment of being the mathematician who has schooled the anthropologist 
> in basic
> anthropology. If this is the case, I understand and we can let it drop.

I'm certainly interested in learning, Lee, whether from you or anybody else. 
I hope however that "learning something about the field from me", does not 
mean taking you as some sort of unchallengeable authority on all subjects 
connected to anthropology.

That is not intended as any sort of insult - I would not take all Albert 
Einstein's views on physics as gospel either.  I merely note that neither 
authority nor democracy are optimal criteria for determining scientific 
truth.  Point to the observations and the theories they prove, and I hope I 
will be convinced to a degree appropriate to their force.

- Gerry Quinn